SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won said memory demand has surged beyond the company’s supply capacity and warned that next year could bring the worst memory shortage on record. According to Odaily, he said AI ecosystem demand for memory is growing rapidly, with customers asking for nearly twice their usual supply.

Chey said expanding production capacity could take four to five years and described competition for memory chips as like a war. He added that without enough memory, customers cannot produce AI computing devices and AI chips. He also said HBM high-bandwidth memory remains in short supply as AI server demand continues to rise, and that some technology companies have gone to South Korea early to sign long-term agreements.

Chey compared current AI development to a four-year-old child and said memory demand will increase significantly as the industry matures. He predicted that AI agent usage could grow 77 times within five years.